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Havana, CUBA

The Caribbean island of Cuba is

currently experiencing an economic

boom. Global economic ties,

especially with individual European

nations, continue to flourish.

Construction of the Havana Container

Terminal (Terminal de Contenedores

de Habana - TCH) is a typical example

of Cuba’s recent development: The

project started in 1990 as a Cuban-

Soviet project until the collapse of

the former Soviet Union. In 1993,

the Transport Ministry bidded out

the concession for the container

terminal.

Container terminal extension

Cuba’s booming economy called for a new container terminal

Front wall HZ 975 B - 12 / AZ 25

150 m

28 m

Rear wall AZ 38

Cantilever wall HZ 975 B - 12 / AZ 25

Crane 26 kN/m Crane 26 kN/m

50 kN/m2

+2.50

+1.50

SML ±0.00

-12.50

-16.50

-18.00

-24.00

+0.30

+1.50

-7.00

AZ 38

Concrete pileConcrete pileHZ 975 B - 12 / AZ 25

2.50 15.30

28.00

Very compact clay stone, SPT > 80

Backfilled sand, sediments and weathered clay stone

Bollard 80 kN/m

30

Havana, CUBA

Being Cuba’s only container terminal,

TCH was approved for a fifteen-year

project in 1996. Only four years later,

the goals of the fifteen-year plan

were reached; the first container

vessel called at the terminal as early

as 1998. In phase one, an initial

investment of $14 million upgraded

the terminal and enabled it to receive

150,000 containers per year. In

phase two, after an investment of

$16.8 million, the annual traffic can

now attain 300,000 TEU. Growth is so

significant that a further $7.5 million is

to be invested to further increase the

container-handling capacity of the

TCH.

The port’s latest proposed investment

is for a 150-m extension of the

existing container terminal quay wall.

In addition to the materials, most of

the special technologies and services

were not easily available in Cuba.

The quay wall was thus supplied

as a complete solution by the

Bauer Group, a German company

specialised in geotechnical and

foundation construction worldwide

as well as in the sale of foundation

construction equipment. The package

included the supply and installation of

a combined sheet pile wall together

with the tie rods. The sheet piles

were produced by Arcelor’s “Mill 2”,

in Belval, Luxembourg. The remaining

civil works such as backfill and

concrete structures were performed

by the Constructions Division of the

Cuban Ministry for Transport.

The new quay wall had to be

connected to an existing wall made of

Larssen 5 piles produced in Russia.

These heavy 420-mm piles have a

section modulus of 3,000 cm³/m and

Driving of steel sheet piles with barge-mounted equipment

Driving of HZ king piles at the corner of the L-shaped wall

The area behind the quay wall was backfilled with dredged sand

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a weight of 238 kg/m². They have a

huge weight disadvantage compared

to modern piles and are therefore far

less economical. The superior width

of today’s piles allows faster driving

progress enabling the contractor to

complete quay walls more rapidly.

To meet the requirements of the

permanently growing dimensions

of vessels, the new quay wall is

designed with a water depth of

12.5 m. Apart from the geometry of

the future construction, soil analyses

are a vital point in the design of

quay walls. The results showed that

the geology in the area consists of

sediments overlaying claystone which

is completely weathered in the upper

four to five metres. Very compact

claystone with SPT values (Standard

Penetration Test) of 80 to 120 blows

per 30 cm penetration is prevalent

below -18.0 m.

The extension of the container terminal

consists in the construction of an

L-shaped sheet pile wall. The

shorter side of the L-shape is a

combined wall composed of 25.5 m

HZ 975 B king piles and 18 m AZ 25

intermediary piles, partly cantilever

and partly anchored to an AZ 38 wall.

For the longer side of the L-shape,

an HZ 975 B-12/AZ 25 solution with

HZ king piles with a web height of

975 mm as load-carrying elements

and AZ 25 sheet piles as intermediary

soil-retaining elements was chosen.

The HZ king piles, delivered in

S 390 GP steel grade, were driven to

a depth of 24 m, whereas for the AZ

infill elements in steel grade S 270 GP

a shallower depth was sufficient to

ensure wall stability. The front wall is

attached to the anchor wall with a

Bauer’s pile-driving equipment: impact hammer and vibratory hammer

A locally hired floating crane assisted the installation of the combined sheet pile wall

The AZ piles were inserted between the HZ piles then driven to design depth

32

Havana, CUBA

Owner:

TCH S.A. Terminal de Contenedores, Cuba

Contractor:

Bauer Spezialtiefbau GmbH, Germany

Steel grade:

S 430 GP, S 390 GP, S 270 GP

Sheet piles:

870 t HZ 975 B, 410 t AZ 25, 320 t AZ 38

Total quantity of sheet piles:

1,600 metric tons

single layer of 28-metre tie rods. The

tie-back wall is made of 8.5-metre

AZ 38 double piles in steel grade

S 430 GP.

A small number of spare piles were

delivered from Luxembourg to the

site in Havana to prevent a standstill

of the construction site as a result of

any possible damage to piles during

transport or installation.

The new and existing walls were

connected with two concrete blocks.

These blocks fitted into the valley of

the Larssen pile at one end and in

between the flanges of an HZ caisson

at the other.

The execution of the project can be

divided into two main phases: the off-

shore works and the finishing works

on land. The combined sheet pile

wall was installed with a locally hired

floating crane. A Bauer base carrier

equipped with a vibratory hammer

was used for the initial installation

of the HZ piles. A hydraulic hammer

drove the piles to their final depth. A

template was used as a guiding frame

to ensure the exact positioning of the

king piles. To finalise the container

quay wall, the double sheet piles

forming the anchor wall were installed

with a simple service crane mounted

on a second floating pontoon in

places where land-based installation

was difficult. Due to the high accuracy

during installation of the HZ piles, the

sheet piles fitted perfectly into the

gaps between the king piles so that

a small hammer was sufficient for

the driving of the final metres into the

compact soil strata.

After the completion of the combined

wall the main equipment was set-up

on land to install major parts of the

anchor wall. Backfilling of the new

quay area proceeded simultaneously.

Precise positioning of the HZ king piles was guaranteed using a double-level template

The complete solution provided includes front wall, tie rods, and anchor wall

33

The sheet piles forming the anchor wall were driven into

the backfilled soil. This facilitated attachment of the tie

rods that connect the king piles of the front wall with

the AZ anchor wall. A continuous waler beam transferred

the anchor loads uniformly into the anchor wall assuring

the stability of the system whilst minimising deformation of

the main wall.

The HZ piles were driven by vibratory hammer until refusal, then taken down to design depth by impact driving

Several sheet piles were installed from a barge; others were driven with land-based equipment